Disappearing in Reverse

By: Allie McFarland

Narrated by: Nina Richmond

Devin died five years ago. She got an infection, lost her arm, and died. How can Devin be in a picture posted online today?

This picture of Devin, alive when she should not be alive, triggers of a journey of grief and discovery as the young woman convinced that she caused Devin's death sets out to discover whether Devin may actually be alive, and whether she can be forgiven. Along the way she steals identities, picking up and discarding the people she may or may not be as she struggles with her guilt, and to come to terms with her own bisexuality. As her sense of self unravels, she meets Calgary hippies, a car thief, and an ice cream loving corpse.

Disappearing in Reverse is a mystery, a road novel, and a coming of age story. Blending past and present, the self and the other, it crosses genres and defies categorization to be met and addressed on its own terms. Fearless and vulnerable, unabashed and wounded, this is a story of the liminal places where expectations falter and the unexpected thrives.

©2020 Allie McFarland (P)2023 University of Calgary Press

Critic reviews

Disappearing in Reverse is a triumph of the feminist picaresque. Allie McFarland writes with fearless honesty and relish . . . Highly Recommended.—Tom Sandborn, Vancouver Sun

Like loose shale skidding down a mountainside, everything in Allie McFarland’s novel(la) feels like it’s slipping out from under you.—Jade Wallace, CAROUSEL Magazine

Disappearing in Reverse is a triumph of the feminist picaresque. Allie McFarland writes with fearless honesty and relish . . . Highly Recommended.—Tom Sandborn, Vancouver Sun